Harriet is known to have prepared a poultice out of poke salad and dandelion greens and that was placed on feet to bring down swelling. For a cold, she would prepare a poultice of onions and camphorated oil which would be placed on the chest and covered with flannel. If the onion poultice was brown in the morning, that meant that the fever was broken. For warts, Harriet would use milkweed, break it open and put the milk on the problem area. The treated individual could not look at where the empty pod was thrown. This process was repeated two or three times until the wart disappeared.
Some members of her family felt that she could be credited with discovering penicillin.
If Harriet saw a mould form on the top of the foods that the family had canned in the fall season, she would remove the mould, place it in another jar, add fresh lemon juice, honey and brandy (or bourbon), and shake it. If you got a cold, then you would get a teaspoon full of this mixture. She would say, “This is good for colds.”
— Marilene Wilkins, a Tubman descendant.
Harriet Tubman, by necessity, had to be resourceful. It was not uncommon for African Americans to use natural herbs and to have knowledge of their powers since they were barred from mainstream healthcare. Our common usage of Aspirin today is connected to the discovery of the effects of willow bark and leaves. The salicin that is contained in this plant reduces discomfort. Pharmaceutical drugs have a connection to herbal remedies. During enslavement, “professional” doctors would not be called for ailing black people, so through necessity, options to promote healing or to lessen painful symptoms were sought out. These experiences would be magnified during Tubman’s time working as a nurse — there had never been a time when she was formally instructed on the care, assessment, and treatment of the soldiers brought before her. She was not a trained nurse, but nevertheless she was requested to carry out these healing functions and became the matron of the coloured hospital. So, despite her lack of formal training, her practical experience learned from her mother and other caregivers in her community equipped her to help heal sick and wounded people.
10
Successful Activism
Certainly the military was pleased with the efforts that Harriet Tubman had displayed. Her skillful teaching so that local women could learn a new trade in order to become self-sufficient; her nursing to keep the soldiers at their best and readiest; her recruitment of Confederate-owned enslaved Africans; her scouting so that not only key areas were destroyed, but also good use made of their stores of supplies. Then, in 1865, she was appointed to deal with some problems that arose in Washington, D.C. hospitals. At Fort Monroe, Virginia, she was appointed matron of the hospital. Her contribution was without a doubt useful and selfless. Harriet was so concerned about how others were feeling that she even gave up her stipend lest others feel she was being given special treatment. But it was not special treatment — she gave up her regular rations that she was entitled to as a soldier to avert any hostile or jealous feelings from others. This was what led her to bake pies and make ginger beer in the evenings so that these items could be sold by others while she continued to work on behalf of the government.
However, Harriet did accept the offer of good rates on the trains as supported in this letter from the Charles Wood collection:
From General Hunter, Headq’rs Dept’t of the South, Hilton Head, Port Royal, S.C.
Feb. 19, 1863
Pass the bearer, Harriet Tubman, to Beaufort, and back to this place, and wherever she wishes to go, and give her passage at all times on all Government transports. Harriet was sent to me from Boston, by Gov. Andrew, of Mass., and is a valuable woman. She has permission, as a warrant of the Government, to purchase such provisions from the commissary as she may need.
Harriet Tubman wanted to see her family, so with her government pass entitling her to pay half fare on the train, she retired from the hospital and headed for Auburn. Even though she had paid for a seat, her presence offended some of the other paying passengers. Her credibility was doubted — how could a black person have a government pass? The ticket taker and several men insulted Harriet, grabbed her, and threw her into the baggage compartment, badly hurting her arm. Harriet had survived the war only to receive her war injury on her way home. Her injury was to her person but also to her income, and considering that she had been a commander of about eight men in preparation for and during the battle on the Combahee, that she was fired upon and that she then performed more typical women’s work on top of that, she was entitled to a reasonable bit of compensation and respect. However, unknown to Harriet, at about the same time that she was being abused, William Lloyd Garrison, a white anti-slavery worker, was receiving $30,000 for his abolition work. Clearly, despite the 13th Amendment freeing the slaves in Union territory, the treatment and experience of blacks was still not fair or equitable.
Harriet Tubman’s derelict Auburn, New York, home, circa 1947.
Photograph by Ruth Putter.
In one example that was close to Harriet, her estranged husband, John, had an argument in 1867 with a white man named Rob Vincent in Dorchester County over some ashes. Rob threatened to kill John, and when the two happened to meet later in the day, Rob stopped his wagon, turned, and deliberately fired at and killed John before driving off. Two witnesses saw what occurred, one being John Tubman’s thirteen-year-old son. Rob was tried and found not guilty.
After her arrival in Auburn, Harriet tried to raise money for two freedmen’s schools in North Carolina, and asked wealthy supporters for donations, gave passionate presentations at meetings, and gave parties in order to help. To support herself, Harriet worked as a nurse, cooked, took care of children, raised chickens, grew vegetables for sale, and relied on the people of Auburn for ad hoc supplies. She would not have been in this position if she had fewer people living with her to care for. Her reputation was such that after the war, the injured, the impoverished, and the elderly, would show up at her home looking for assistance. Not willing to turn them away, she welcomed them, expanded her vegetable garden, and tried harder to seek donations from the wealthier class in town. She cared for up to twenty people, including her parents, her brother William Henry, Mary Ann’s son Harkless Bowley, and a grand-niece Eva Stewart.
Had Harriet received what she was entitled to for her work with the government, which she estimated to be $18,000 (blacks routinely were paid half of what whites would expect to receive), plus an additional amount for recruiting, she would have lived much more comfortably. Later, Harriet did receive some money from the sale of the Bradford book.
Harriet was surprised to meet Nelson Davis at her door one day. He claimed to have met Harriet in 1864 while he was a member of the 8th Coloured Infantry. He greatly admired Harriet, and though he was twenty years younger than Harriet and healthy looking, Nelson was unable to work because he had contracted tuberculosis. Harriet had a commitment to help her people and may have been flattered by his admiration or felt a need to protect him because he was sick. Maybe the two just fell in love. In any event, they were wed in Central Church, Auburn, on March 18, 1869. They lived together until